Published 4:00 am, Sunday, July 4, 2004

Photo: CAROLYN KASTER

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TRAVEL GETTYSBURG, Penn. -- Shyann, 9, left, and her little brother Tyler Webber, 8, look out over the Gettysburg Battlefield as they stand next to the bronze statue "The Eye of General Warren" on Little Round Top at Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pa., Sept. 7, 2003. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) less

TRAVEL GETTYSBURG, Penn. -- Shyann, 9, left, and her little brother Tyler Webber, 8, look out over the Gettysburg Battlefield as they stand next to the bronze statue "The Eye of General Warren" on Little Round ... more

Photo: CAROLYN KASTER

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TRAVEL GETTYSBURG, Penn. Jan. 8, 2002 -- Gettysburg National Cemetery includes numerous markers for graves of unidentified soldiers who were killed in the battle there in 1863. (SHNS photo by Ron Cobb / St. Louis Post-Dispatch) less

TRAVEL GETTYSBURG, Penn. Jan. 8, 2002 -- Gettysburg National Cemetery includes numerous markers for graves of unidentified soldiers who were killed in the battle there in 1863. (SHNS photo by Ron Cobb / St. ... more

2004-07-04 04:00:00 PDT Gettysburg, Pa. -- Standing on the hallowed ground of America's most-famous battlefield, it's a natural question for the visitor to ask: Just what on earth was Gen. Robert E. Lee thinking?

That question has haunted the country's history ever since July 3, 1863, when Lee sent 12,000 men under Gen. George Pickett charging across almost a mile of open field into massed Union artillery and riflemen on the climactic third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Only an hour or so after Pickett's men set off at 3 p.m., after a two- hour barrage by 131 Confederate cannons supposedly eased their way, 5,000 were killed or wounded or captured, and the remnant grimly retreated. Lee and his battered Army of Northern Virginia withdrew toward the Potomac River and safety.

Lee's decision has been controversial ever since, and even he knew almost immediately that something was amiss. "This has been my fault. I thought my men were invincible," the commander famously told his top deputy, Gen. James Longstreet, who had opposed the charge.

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The scene of Pickett's Charge and the mystery behind Lee's decision comprise the main event for the visitor to Gettysburg, population 7,490. The self-described "most famous small town in America" attracts some 1.8 million visitors a year. It's a place with a powerful pull for both the first-time and repeat visitor. That allure reflects the battle's unique grip on Americans 141 years after it was fought and helped turn the tide in the Civil War.

As one historian wrote, the battle and its 51,000 killed and wounded -- almost equal to the number of Americans killed in the entire Vietnam war -- constituted "three bloody days that took hold of the American memory and imagination and never let go."

Visitors to the town about 90 minutes north of Washington, D.C., reached through pleasant, hilly Maryland and southern Pennsylvania countryside, can easily get caught up in the battle's history and lore, whether they stay for a few hours or a few days. Consider this: There are some 1,300 magnificently tended monuments and statues scattered across the Gettysburg National Military Park, which originally consisted of 522 1/4 acres, but has grown to 5,898 acres over the past century.

By car, on foot, bicycle or even on horseback, visitors can take in monuments placed exactly where artillery batteries, infantry regiments or divisions were stationed, or where the battle's commanders, Lee and the Union's Gen. George Gordon Meade, conferred with subordinates or led their men at crucial moments.

It seems that every inch of the battlefield carries an evocative name: Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard, The Angle, Culp's Hill, Cemetery Hill, The Copse of Trees and "the High Water Mark of the Confederacy," the spot where small units of Pickett's men broke through Union lines in the battle's last moments.

For example, near the two-room farmhouse of Lydia Leister, a widow who by an awful twist of fate found herself at the center of the great battle, there is an impressive monument to the 930th New York Infantry, Meade's "head- quarter guard." On the night of July 2, the general held a council of war in the little house, which still stands, to plan for the final day's combat.

The New Yorkers' memorial shows their state's crest and its optimistic slogan, "Excelsior!" On top are bronze sculptures of a common soldier's backpack, bedroll and canteen.

The battlefield also speaks of the colorful characters who fought there. In addition to Lee and Meade, who President Abraham Lincoln soon removed from command of the Army of the Potomac because he felt the general wasn't quick enough to chase after and destroy Lee's fleeing army, there are men like the roguish Union Gen. Dan Sickles.

Sickles, a New Yorker who commanded Meade's Third Corps, earned a place in history on the battle's second day. He didn't like the spot assigned his corps, so he moved it ahead of the Union line about one-half mile to the Peach Orchard, presenting the Confederates with an inviting salient to attack. In bitter fighting, Sickles' force managed an orderly withdrawal back to its original lines. He probably would have been court-martialed if he hadn't become a hero when he was grievously wounded in the fighting, and had a leg amputated within half an hour.

The really odd part of the story is that Sickles kept his leg and donated it to an Army museum in Washington, where he used to visit it. He lived on until 1914, and his leg bones are still on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington.

Or consider the case of Confederate Gen. Lewis Armistead, one of the Pickett's Charge commanders whose story brings home the point that the Civil War often pitted old friend vs. old friend, brother against brother. Armistead was wounded just as he crossed the Union line, and as he lay on the ground, he called for his friend, Union Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, who it turns out was wounded at about the same time.

The best way to comprehend the battle's enormity is to start at the visitor center, a busy and well-worn barn of a building that will finally be replaced in the next few years with a new structure about one-half mile east. The center contains a bookstore that's a treasure house for Civil War buffs, displays of 1860s-era weaponry and a touching display of photos from the 75th anniversary reunion of the battle in 1938, when veterans in their 90s from both sides came by train from across the nation for three days of events captured on newsreels and carried on radio.

The main event is the Electric Battlefield, a square operating theater- style room in which 12 times a day visitors who pay $4 or $3 for kids and seniors look down on a big board as a recorded presentation about the battle plays out before them. It's well worth the money, even if it's to learn the odd fact that in the war between north and south it was Lee's Southerners who approached the little Pennsylvania town from the north while Meade's Northerners came up from the south.

Across Washington Street is the National Cemetery, home to 7,000 Union graves, including 1,668 of unidentified soldiers. It's where Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address in dedicating the cemetery on Nov. 19, 1863.

A few hundred yards south is the Cyclorama Center, a 40-year-old building housing Frenchman Paul Dominque Philippoteaux's 360-foot-long, 26-foot-high circular painting of Pickett's Charge, a late 19th century sensation. Sixteen times a day visitors stand on a circular platform during a 10-minute, $3 presentation to watch and listen to narration by actor Richard Dreyfus as the battle unfolds around them.

The cyclorama, painted in Paris by Philippoteaux and assistants in less than a year, will also move to the new visitor center.

To tour the battlefield, visitors can get a map at the visitor center and follow the markers for either a two-hour or three-hour self-guided tour. Audio tape and CD guided tours are available for $10 to $15. For $40, you can hire battlefield guides licensed by the National Park Service who will jump in your vehicle with you and offer a two-hour tour.

Shorter and free specialized tours are also available from the guides or from park rangers. A board in the visitor center lobby tells the daily schedule.

The battle, and the entire Civil War, can become all-consuming. Authors frequently come to the bookstore to autograph and sell their works.

A recent visitor was William B. Styple from New Jersey, author and editor of 18 books and CDs about the war, who came dressed in the dark blue wool uniform of a common Union soldier.

"I came here as a little kid and got interested in it, even before I could read," he said.

"This battle was the defining moment in our country's history. The battle could have gone either way -- and changed our nation forever."

IF YOU GO

Getting there

Dulles International, Reagan National and Baltimore-Washington International are each about 70 miles away.

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